


Twenty Million Beats

by Phoenix_WingBeat



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Badass Sokka (Avatar), Friendship, Gen, Hiding Medical Issues, Protective Sokka (Avatar), Sacrifice, Sokka (Avatar)-centric, Writing Exercise, but our boy is dying, help him, idk if it counts as a medical issue, later sokka/zuko friendship, sokka is smarter than we all think, sokka needs more love, sokkangst, zuko is the most awkward bro
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-05-23 08:07:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14930426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoenix_WingBeat/pseuds/Phoenix_WingBeat
Summary: “For this, I'll leave you only twenty million beats.”“… deal.”Then a world of pain suffocated him.---You don’t mess with the Spirits. Team Avatar learned that the hard way when they very nearly got buried alive in that cursed desert library. That was all behind them now though. They were able to escape and survive, carrying with them valuable information that could turn the current century-old war to their favor. They succeeded. Or so they thought. The Avatar made a promise and broke it, and that meant there was going to be hell to pay.Fortunately, Sokka could drive a hard bargain.Unfortunately, even with that bargain, Sokka knew he bit off more than he could chew. He knows it’s not a price he can pay on his own, but damn if he wasn’t going to try.It was his fault after all.He promises to fix this. One heartbeat at a time.





	1. The Calm Before the Storm

**Author's Note:**

> The first chapter will be a prologue of sorts. Basically a retelling of what happened after they escaped from the desert library, but centered more on Sokka's POV. I really can't bring myself to believe that Wan Shi Tong didn't do anything else after that half-assed attempt at chasing Team Avatar down. I mean, you break a promise with a spirit and he chases you, but that's it? I initially thought Wan Shi Tong would do something more. I understand that being a great spirit that just wants to be left alone can keep him from pursuit, but *still*.
> 
> Basically, I'm building the story up from that. This will follow the events of ATLA until the very last episode. Not every episode though, just bits and pieces and maybe scenes in between as well. The rest of the events run the same as the series. I'm planning on around 20-30 chapters or so? Also, I know I tagged a lot of Zuko but he'll appear a little later. I absolutely adore their friendship.
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoy, guys.

Sokka yawned as he stretched and pushed his hands up towards the night sky. The moon hung pale and full in the distance above him, looking lonely as neither star nor cloud were visible to accompany it. He felt the same way. It was so dark, cold, and quiet. It made for a very gloomy atmosphere, indeed. The moon also never failed to remind him of Yue, and that thought didn’t help his mood either.

He and the sleeping members of Team Avatar were settled near a small cluster of boulders and cacti in the desert, despite Aang’s stubborn insistence that they continue to give chase to Appa’s captors. Closing his eyes, he recounted their grim situation.

The hundred-and-twelve-year-old was both angry and distraught regarding the loss of Appa. For the first few dozen hours, the team tolerated how Aang forced them through the desert without any outward indication of considering the wellbeing of his teammates. They had no food, no water, and no shelter from the sweltering heat and stinging sand of the desert.

The team understood of course, that Appa was precious to Aang. The sky bison was one of the only living things that connected Aang to his airbender past. Appa was Aang’s _family._ Without Appa by his side, he felt incomplete and just a little lost. He might as well have had a large chunk of his heart taken out and thrown away. Sokka could almost hear the airbender’s thoughts as he pushed ahead of the team. The only reason they knew Aang hadn’t forgot about them was that he continued to walk, instead of taking off on his glider as he would surely have if they weren’t there. It still looked like he wanted to though. Every twitch of Aang’s fingers towards his glider and every grit of his teeth and narrowing of his eyes screamed the same message; _they had_ _to find Appa._

But after dragging Toph back on track the tenth time in the last hour and steadying a wobbling Katara five times in the last half, he decided that enough was enough. Normally, Katara would be the one to insist on taking healthy breaks, but with so much self-destructive determination in Aang’s every movement, it was easy to understand if she didn’t know how to proceed. So this time, Sokka had to take the initiative. Guiding Toph’s hand to Katara’s sleeve, he quickened his pace to catch up with Aang. They argued for all of twenty seconds before Aang’s shoulders slumped tiredly, rage and adrenaline dissipating in a gust of hot wind. After a few more minutes, the team was able to find their current resting place for the night.

Opening his eyes again, Sokka turned around and watched the still forms of his friends. Toph had been overjoyed to finally find any hint of bendable earth amidst all the sand she’d been walking through. At the moment, the blind bender was draped over two of the biggest boulders, her hands tucked under her head, and her feet hanging just slightly above the sand. Sokka was sure it was an uncomfortable position. Toph hadn’t even bothered to bend the rocks to make them more comfortable. Well… as comfortable as rocks could be to an earthbender. The uneven surface of the boulders poked at her back, but she was too tired to care. That would probably hurt in the morning though, Sokka thought silently.

Katara and Aang were curled up at the base of Toph’s boulders, each facing opposite directions. Thanks to Katara’s persuasion and her motherly, calming words, Aang was able to relax enough to sleep. He nodded to himself, they would need all the energy they could get. Circling around their makeshift camp, he glanced around for what felt like the thousandth time that night. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to see. Appa? A town? Oh, definitely, but very unlikely. Did he want to see other signs of life? People or animals? At first his mind screamed yes. They hadn’t seen anyone else for miles. They could help them find a way back. But then again, they could also be threats. A squad of firebenders or a bunch of wild desert animals were the last things the team needed right now.

Sokka had volunteered himself for first watch. He was sure that Katara’s turn had been up for some time now, but he decided that his sister needed all the rest she could get. He looked at his friends and promptly concluded that the rest of them needed the sleep as well. He reasoned that if worse came to worst and they were attacked in the desert, the benders of the group had to be in good shape for them to have any chance of surviving.

Reaching down, Sokka picked up a small, egg-sized rock and tossed it from one hand to another. _He had to pass the time and stay awake somehow._ He threw the rock upwards, just a few inches above his palm to test its weight. He then proceeded to throw it higher and higher. Feeling more confident, Sokka threw it upwards as high as he could and waited for the rock to fall. He tilted his head up so he could watch it descend and position himself accordingly. He felt an unnatural gust of wind around him and his eyes stung from the sand it brought to his face. Muttering a string of silent curses, he shut his eyes and rubbed them with both hands, stumbling away from the place he expected his rock to land. It didn’t. Or at least, Sokka thought it was taking longer than it should have. He didn’t yet hear the telltale thump of the rock on sand.

Sokka opened his painful eyes and failed to smother a loud yelp that echoed ominously. He didn’t hear anything land because there was no rock and no sand. There was nothing around him at all. Just a deep blue vastness dotted with what looked like glowing stars and fog. And he was… floating? He turned sharply to his left and was relieved to see his friends in the same position he left them. They were still asleep, and they appeared to be lazily floating with him in that vast space of nothingness, but at least he wasn’t alone. He made a move towards Aang to nudge him awake. This felt like some spirit mumbo jumbo he didn’t know how to handle. These types of things were more up the Avatar’s alley. The faster he could wake Aang, the faster he could figure out where they were and what was going on.

Before Sokka could take more than two sluggish steps though, he felt a strong, angry, aura behind him. Startled, he swirled around. And screamed.

He was looking into the creepy dark eyes of a giant owl.

He raised his hands to shield his face and screamed some more.

A very _familiar_ giant owl.

Floating backwards with the sheer force of his shock and his flailing arms, he struggled to calm himself and right his stance. He reached for his boomerang as he clutched a handful of cloth over his rapidly beating heart.

Wan Shi Tong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates will be sporadic, depending on the amount of love this gets. It's initially intended to be a writing exercise to ease off my writer's block once in a while. But who knows? Maybe I'll be given the motivation to update regularly. It's a win-win either way.
> 
> Feel free to suggest and correct stuff if you guys like. This is just lazy writing that *will* have mistakes.  
> Oh, angst prompts would help greatly as well. Go wild.  
> Sokka is my child, but I can't resist. For a non-bender, he didn't have many whump scenes.
> 
> If you guys are picky with ATLA terms like the animal combinations or other in-universe stuff, I'm sorry. You'll have to excuse me for not using them correctly or not using them at all. (As i said, this is just a leisurely writing exercise so the quality and detail would definitely not be spot on.) If it really irks you, then feel free to help me correct them, I don't mind.


	2. Wan Shi Tong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wan Shi Tong appears. The team had been transported to a mysterious spirit plane. And the owl has a conversation with the only conscious member, Sokka. Unexpected words are spoken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Behold, Wan Shi Tong. The barn owl librarian with eyeliner on fleek.

One of the humans were awake. The Southern Water Tribe boy, Sokka. But it did not matter. Wan Shi Tong raised himself to his full height, not taking his eyes away from the boy’s frightened ones. After a few seconds of silence, the spirit shifted his attention towards the sleeping figures.

_Ah, the traitor Avatar was there. He must suffer for his offense._

Wan Shi Tong’s trail of thought was interrupted by a loud noise. The water tribe boy was yelling at him. _The nerve._

“Hey! Look at me, you big stinking, flying, psycho of a nerd! What did you do? Why are we here? Where are we? And what do you want?!” Sokka was trying his hardest to keep his voice from trembling and rising in pitch.

He was stumbling over his questions and his knees were knocking against each other. He liked to believe that he succeeded when the owl-spirit slowly shifted its gaze to settle upon him, the barest hint of disdain flickered in its pitch-black eyes. Sokka was beginning to get unnerved by the owl’s black stare. Forcing himself to stare back, Sokka raised his voice even louder in an attempt to get some answers from the blank faced spirit.

“HE-EY!” Whoops, that was definitely a crack in his voice, but Sokka swallowed his embarrassment and kept his eyes trained on the owl’s in a silent challenge. The spirit said and did nothing.

Gods he was terrified. Sokka was trying to stare down a spirit owl librarian about ten times his size. Sokka may have done lots of crazy things, but this took the cake. He gathered himself for a brief moment, shutting his eyes and steeling his resolve. _Just do it, Sokka. He tried to kill you. He tried to kill Katara! No one tries to kill my little sister. Not those hornets, not that fire brat, and most definitely not this bird giving him the silent treatment. _With his newfound fury, he opened his eyes and snapped his head upwards to meet the owl’s gaze.

“ANSWER ME!” His voice rang loud and clear in the vastness. Sokka mentally gave himself a pat on the back. That carried better than he expected.

Wan Shi Tong was honestly incredulous. The human was yelling at him, a centuries old spirit, _demanding_ the reason for his presence. As if they didn’t already know why. It took every ounce of self-control he had not to vanish the boy then and there for his insolence, but as Wan Shi Tong said so himself, he was a centuries old spirit, and he would be damned if he didn’t have the patience to show for it. Stifling down his flash of anger, he moved slowly towards the small human.

“I have no need to answer to a being as inferior as you,” Wan Shi Tong rebuked. “But you speak as if you don’t know the reason for my visit. Have the humans really become that stupid since I closed off the library?”

Sokka bristled at the remark. “Well, excuse you. I need to know whether your great birdy-ness was here to kill us, like you tried to earlier,” he jabbed his boomerang in Wan Shi Tong’s direction. “—or if you’ve come to apologize, and I dunno? Maybe hand us some help? I don’t know if you’ve realized this already, but if you bothered to share your ‘knowledge of ten thousand things’ to us inferior beings, then maybe we wouldn’t be bothering you so much!”

“I assure you, I have every intention of continuing what I started. You will pay dearly for your transgressions,” the owl spirit extended his wings menacingly.

Oh damn. Sokka paled. In this spirit realm… space… place? They were all completely at this mad-spirit’s mercy. He had to distract him somehow. Or better, convince him to leave them alone.

He flinched as the spirit circled lazily around him. He couldn’t let the bird get too close to his friends! “As for helping you, I don’t understand how you could expect me to do such a thing.”

Sokka rushed to recapture the owl’s attention. “You said so yourself! Other people came to use your precious library for information to beat each other up,” He straightened up, gaining more confidence. _Good, he’s facing him fully now._ The spirit was positioned between Sokka and the rest of the team, its back was turned towards the sleeping figures.

Sokka pushed on. “You know things but never act, what’s the use then? You’ll constantly be on the receiving end of trickery from people who know less but act more.”

“I fail to see what this has to do with anything.”

“If you bothered to share the right information with the right people, then this war would have been over a long time ago! You pride yourself for your knowledge and power, but for all your knowledge, you’re not as wise as you are ancient,” he spat angrily. “The great Wan Shi Tong knows ten thousand things alright, but compassion isn’t one of them.”

An odd sound rumbled from the spirit’s chest. “Compassion? Such a human thing to say. I am a great spirit, I have no need for such a concept. I may have had that once before, but that was a long, long time ago. It was what inspired me to open my library to all. I’ve lived all these years without burdening myself with that unnecessary baggage.”

“That only means you have no clue what it truly is. I’m not surprised really. It’s fitting. Who would have guessed that the one thing a great spirit of knowledge can’t grasp would be the ways of humans? Compassion, persistence, desperation, honor… love,” Sokka smirked. “We inferior beings are much too complicated for an old bird, eh?”

Wan Shi Tong wouldn’t lie. He was terribly annoyed, but the words of the child caught his attention. It was true. More often than not, the beings called humans were extremely irrational to him. They made decisions and acted in ways that defied logic. Each human was unique, yet they seem to have an entire collective culture and mutual understanding he couldn’t make sense of. For such a widely varied species, they had norms and practices so foreign to him. But he knew, behind the irrationality of those inferior beings, there was a logic. He was almost frustrated to admit that he didn’t know exactly what the logic entailed.

No matter. He wasted enough time. His natural thirst for knowledge was tugging him back to his conversation with the boy, but the pull of his fury was stronger.

“I care not, mortal,” Wan Shi Tong hissed. “You and your friends have wronged a spirit. It’s time to pay for the information you promised not to take.”

“Wait! What are you planning to do?!” Sokka was panicking now, he needed to think of something, and _fast_.

“Why, I’m ending you and your friends of course. Dead men tell no tales. The information you all took from me will never see the light of day.”

The spirit drew himself to his full height, extending his wings and stretching his talons. He began to turn gracefully towards the Avatar, his first victim. Wan Shi Tong was disappointed in the young boy. He’d hoped for something different this time around. The airbender was a walking bundle of positivity and optimism, the spirit could feel it in his aura. It was a refreshing change from the dullness of the last few years. But after his offense, the spirit had made his decision. One small child couldn’t change anything. He would be doing the young Avatar a favor by killing him before the darkness snuffs out his light.

Seconds after his turn, he felt a small, sharp sting on the back of his neck. _That insolent—_

“NO, STOP!” The spirit turned sharply towards the voice, a low growl building up in his throat. They’ve offended him enough, maybe he should start with that water tribe boy instead. He flapped his wings in one powerful motion, stirring up not a gust, but an invisible wave of intimidation that seemed to strike the boy in the gut, as he hunched over slightly, mouth hanging open.

“WAIT!” Sokka had a wild look in his eyes. His boomerang-free hands were raised in a sign of surrender.

“Please,” he pleaded desperately, his voice cracking despite his attempts to toughen up.

“I want to bargain.”

The spirit’s round, dark eyes turned to slits. _Well, this should be interesting._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea how to explain the spirit plane. Basically it should be like space, but with glowing, white fog. The characters appear in the same positions as they were (e.g. Toph was laying down above Aang and Katara, in the SP, the boulders, floor, and landscape may vanish, but she remains laying down in that position.). There is little gravity (like when Aang enters the spirit realm), allowing them to bounce and/or float around. Elements can't be bent there either. (Because technically, there's nothing to bend)
> 
> Yep, I tried.
> 
> I probably have lots of mistakes in this chapter (typos, grammar, terminologies, timeline errors) feel free to correct.  
> I was watching a movie while working on it.
> 
> Anyways, as you guys can tell, the next chapter is looking pretty grim for our boy, Sokka.


	3. The Bargaining Chip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka and Wan Shi Tong make a deal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm all for canon-ly smart and strategic Sokka.

He was _so_ stupid. _Why did he do that???_ He lobbed his puny boomerang at a very ancient, very powerful, and rightfully very annoyed spirit, right before he demanded for a bargain. Because that totally wouldn’t hurt his chances, right? _Not._

His mouth moved way faster than his mind back there. Sokka didn’t even know what he could possibly have to offer. The knot he made back at the library was definitely not going to be enough this time.

Sokka forced his hands back to his sides and straightened his posture. _Ok, Sokka. Calm down. Even when nothing around you works, your mind always will._ He settled down into comfortable territory: Strategizing. He knew he didn’t look like it but Sokka believed his plans were pretty good, and that he was just a _little_ bit smart. In fact, he enjoyed planning things, from schedules to battle plans. Right now, though, things were very serious. _Get your head on, Sokka. Breathe. Think._

Wan Shi Tong noticed the young boy’s change in demeanor and lowered his head to Sokka’s level, their faces barely a foot apart.

            “A bargain? What on earth could you possibly give me that would be worth my information, my pride as a spirit, or even your lives?” the spirit challenged.

Sokka was running on instinct at that very moment, but that never before stopped him from making intelligent guesses. Though his conscious mind was currently stalling from sheer intimidation and terror, his unconscious mind was able to catch subtle, yet important clues from the unreadable spirit. He had an impressively neutral expression as he took all of two seconds to respond.

            “Knowledge,” he boldly answered.

In his head, Sokka was slowly able to piece together a plan of action. But for it to have any chance of working at all, he was going to have to sell it _hard_. No more goofy faces. No more jokes. At this moment, Sokka brought out the side of him that only emerged under great pressure. The side that persevered when his father left him and his sister to go to war. The side that took charge during the invasion of the Northern Water Tribe. This side of Sokka had a mission to fulfill, and that was to get this big bird’s interest away from his friends’ lives. No matter what.

Needless to say, Wan Shi Tong was incredulous. The water tribe child was indeed filled with the unlikeliest of surprises. Too bad they were the futile, needless, and stupid kind.

            “Knowledge? You intend to offer knowledge to ‘He Who Knows Ten-Thousand Things’?” the owl spirit reared its his menacingly. “Are you playing games, boy?”

            “I assure you, great spirit. I’m not playing any games. Not right now, not while my friends’ lives are at stake.”

Wan Shi Tong kept silent. The spirit couldn’t yet to understand what exactly Sokka had to offer.

            “I wish to offer you knowledge, but not just any type of knowledge. I intend to give you information regarding humanity and the ways of humans,” Sokka spoke respectfully slowly, and as clearly as he could. He couldn’t afford to mess this up now.

Wan Shi Tong blinked. “And what makes you think that I don’t already have this information, or that I’d even be interested in understanding the ways of such inferior beings?”

_Got’cha._ It was Sokka’s time to strike.

            “I don’t. But I said something interesting a few moments ago, didn’t I? ‘ _Wan Shi Tong knows ten thousand things, but compassion isn’t one of them’_. I also pointed out that of all the things you understood, humanity remains a mystery to you.” Wan Shi Tong narrowed his eyes. He could see were the boy was going.

            “You had every right to correct me, and frankly, if I was correct, your personality would have _demanded_ that you correct me,” Sokka held his breath as he waited for a reaction. He knows he hit a mark somewhere. Now he just needed to hear the verdict.

A few tense seconds passes and Sokka has to fight the urge to fidget and look away from the dark eyes of the owl spirit before him.

Suddenly, a voice booms from the ancient spirit. Sokka is too shell-shocked to understand what he said at first, but the deep echoes of ‘ _Very well.’_ from all around him helped jolt his brain back to work.

            “You must know, however, that there _will_ be conditions to ensure that a ... _fair_ trade would occur between us.”

Sokka nodded.

Satisfied with his approval, Wan Shi Tong continued, “First of all, I agree with accepting knowledge for knowledge. For the information you stole from me at the library, I will be accepting your offer of information on humanity. To obtain your information, my bond with my knowledge seekers will come into play. I shall use the same concept with you, and turn you into a special, _human_ , knowledge seeker.”

Wan Shi Tong paused for a moment to ensure that Sokka could understand what he was getting at. Seeing the boy’s confused expression prompted him to explain further.

            “Through this bond, everything you know will be known by me. Your memories, your emotions, are all shared with me. By doing so, your very being would become a valuable source of knowledge, more effective than any book, scroll, or lecture. I believe that experiencing this human irrationality for myself is the only way I’ll be able to understand it.”

            “Wa- wait, what?!” Sokka sputtered. “I’ll be sharing _everything_ with you? How are you even going to do that? And how about my privacy?! I was planning on giving a… lecture or something. Maybe I would have written a book.” That was a total lie. But hey, he was under immense pressure here.

In all honesty, Sokka hadn’t even considered how he was going to get the information over to the spirit, much less how to put the complexity of humanity into the appropriate words to teach him about it. So aside from the humongous breach of privacy, maybe the knowledge seeker bond thingy wasn’t so bad, it was a small price to pay, really. _Think positive, Sokka._

Ignoring the boy’s outburst, Wan Shi Tong carried on with his explanation.

           “Becoming a human knowledge seeker will not be without repercussions. The body and spirit of a living human, with the exception of the Avatar, is not meant to carry the burden of my contract. Humans are filled with too much conflicting energies. Light and dark, order and chaos, the elements, and all the other aspects that make up _life_ and inspire _change._ These make your spirit unstable, and therefore, weak and fragile.

           “A contract with a spirit like myself is heavy and final. The constant connection with me is a permanent weight on the shoulders of one’s spirit, it drains them of energy. Normally, I would siphon some energy of my own to my knowledge seekers through our connection, to maintain them and repay them for their work. But as I said earlier, a live human’s spirit is unstable and fragile. Not only are our energies incompatible, I also run the risk of crippling your mind and body if I force a transfer of energy too powerful for you to handle.

          “Therefore, it goes without saying that if your spirit is under too much stress, your body will follow suit. This is why, aside from obvious reasons from history, having humans as knowledge seekers just wouldn’t be ideal. They’d break before finding anything of substance.”

Boy, did Sokka not like the sound of that. He gulped audibly and continued to listen, eyes fully trained on the spirit.

          “Thus, I have a special arrangement for you. This will serve as your payment for both the information, and for breaking a sacred oath.”

Flapping his huge ebony wings, Wan Shi Tong took off abruptly and flew in three lazy circles directly above Sokka. He reached out instinctively and nine glowing feathers descended softly into his palms. As soon as they touched his skin, the feathers all lost their unearthly glow and shrank to the size of a human thumb. Sokka was silently awestruck at the display and held one of them up for him to examine. Light slid up and around the black feather in waves. It was so shiny it looked almost metallic. While he was engrossed with the feathers, Wan Shi Tong landed silently in front of him.

          “Woah… What are these for?” Sokka asked as he held them all out for the spirit to see.

          “Those feathers will help you carry the burden of our impending oath. Consuming them will weaken my connection to your spirit for several hours, giving you ample time to rest and recover from the stress and pain you would surely receive.”

          “Wait… pain?!” Sokka exclaimed. “There’s pain involved?”

Wan Shi Tong’s patience was running out he’s given enough explanations for today. “Yes. The stress experienced by your spirit will translate as pain to your human body. This oath will undoubtedly shorten your lifespan. Indeed, you will be paying for your transgressions with every beat of your heart,” Wan Shi Tong explained gravely, dragging out the last few words so they sink in effectively. “Are you losing courage, boy? I can always just execute you and your friends to get all of this over and done with.”

Sokka bit his lower lip. _It’s alright_ , he thought. Very fitting, in fact. It was his stupid mistake at the library that got them into this mess. So, he had no qualms about sacrificing his own life for his friends’. A little pain was also worth the information they received. He wasn’t afraid.

            Sokka straightened up defiantly. “I’m more afraid of losing my friends and losing the war than I am of making a deal with you. For their lives, I give mine. And for the information we stole, I offer you all you wish to know,” Sokka smirked. “So bring it. Take as much of my ‘heartbeats’ as you want. They’re worth nothing if not for my friends and our victory in the war.”

            “Then—,” Wan Shi Tong announced with a tone of finality. “for this, I leave you with only twenty million beats.”

            There was a short silence as Sokka fought to maintain his façade of bravery. Were they seriously going with the heartbeat idea? The reality of the situation washed over him like a tidal wave and threatened to drown him in fear. He tried to compute mentally how much time he would have left, but his mind was too panicked to make coherent computations. At this point though, he knew he only had one thing to say.

            “…deal.”

            Wan Shi Tong kept his face impassive, but he was secretly pleased. The raw and detailed information he’d receive, from a willing subject no less, was impossible to resist.

            “Very well, step forward. I suggest that you put away those feathers and keep them safe. You’ll need them soon.”

            Sokka didn’t doubt the spirit’s grave words and scrambled to stuff the nine precious feathers into a small pouch that was once used to store his favorite jerky. He’d have to find an appropriate container later on, but this would have to do.

Taking a hesitant step forward, Sokka looked up at Wan Shi Tong. The spirit’s face was blank, as usual, but up close, Sokka could see a hint of triumph in those pitch-black eyes. Not wanting to appear afraid, he puffed out his chest and balled his hands into fists.

            “I’m ready,” Sokka announced in the most confident tone he could muster. Ready for what, exactly? He didn’t know. Fortunately, he wouldn’t have to wait long for the answer. Wan Shi Tong gave him an almost imperceptible nod as he looked upon him for a few short moments.

Abruptly, the spirit flapped his wings once, shot up, and dove straight for Sokka’s chest.

At the last second, Wan Shi Tong’s body glowed and transformed into a bolt of pure white energy that struck Sokka in the heart. It all happened so fast that he didn’t even have time to scream in fear. Instead, he shut his eyes and a world of pain engulfed him.

Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was his sleeping friends, Aang, Katara, and Toph. Then his eyes shifted to focus on the horizon, past the endless desert that surrounded them, and then he lifted his head slightly to look at the cloudless night sky.

He heard the soft thump of a rock just inches beside him. In all that drama, he forgot about that rock he threw before Wan Shi Tong appeared to him. Sokka’s hands were still clutching the fabric at his chest, where he felt a white-hot pain just moments ago. It was now, thankfully, reduced to a soft, dull throb. Instead of removing his hands from his chest, Sokka simply let go of the fabric and lay his palms flat above his heart, fingers curling around the base of his neck.

There, he could feel his heartbeat thumping softly, innocently, consistently. He dropped to his knees and stayed like that for a few moments, wondering what he had just done.

_I saved them all_ , he thought. _But now I’m… dying?_ Sokka’s breath hitched at that, and so did his heartbeat. With all the adrenaline gone, he was tired. Mentally, emotionally, and otherwise. Whatever Wan Shi Tong did must have tired him somehow. He needed to recharge. Taking a calming breath, he shuffled over to Katara so she could take over his extended shift. He drifted into a restless sleep knowing he could think better in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to pull so much bs into the narrative just to finish this chapter and all the explanations. Indeed, I amuse myself to no end. 
> 
> The next chapter will feature the Gaang and the canon storyline.
> 
> Don't be afraid to shoot me some prompts or ideas I could use for the next chapters. They'd be greatly appreciated.


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